![\"\"](\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Vintage-First-communion-statue-e1614908585603-208x300.jpg\")
had a pull-out plastic drawer in it (assumedly, for aforesaid rosary).<\/p>\nUpon the making of my first communion, several (!) decades ago, I was the proud recipient of a variety of first communion(-ish?) gifts and Catholic kitsch: a child\u2019s missal\u2026a statue of Our Lady of Fatima\u2026a rosary\u2026this cool little plastic statue of Jesus giving first communion to a little girl which had a pull-out plastic drawer in it (assumedly, for aforesaid rosary).<\/p>\n
We may ask what the Marian devotional items have to do with post-conciliar receipt of first communion, but we can save that question for another time.<\/p>\n
Of all the gifts I received, though, my favorite was one given to me by my aunt\u2014a first communion\u00a0snow globe (!!!), with a little red-headed girl standing at the prayerful ready.\u00a0 When you shook her, a shower of glitter swirled around her.\u00a0 Super cool for this 8 year old!<\/p>\n
My snow globe sat on my dresser for an entire childhood\u2014and came with me as soon as I had a chest of drawers which exuded more stability than the pressed-wood monstrosities of my college dorm rooms.\u00a0 She still, in fact, sits on my dresser.\u00a0 Though, as you may have gathered, our tiny ceramic communicant is slightly less for wear.\u00a0 Or less for water, perhaps.<\/p>\n
But, even though I knew she was there, I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve been doing a good job of really looking <\/em>at her.\u00a0 Or, perhaps more precisely, that even if I saw the signs of slowly sinking spiritual surroundings (and I\u2019ll admit I did<\/em> notice that she\u2019d started to list weirdly to one side), I did nothing to change it.<\/p>\n What do we do when we see what we\u2019ve forgotten, what we\u2019ve lost, or what we now regret suddenly stand out in sharp relief?\u00a0 What do we do when we realize we\u2019ve lost something?\u00a0 When we suddenly see that our glass is half empty?<\/p>\n We\u2019re about to hit the half-way point of our Lenten season.\u00a0 How full is your glass?\u00a0 Have you noticed your own commitments to prayer, fasting and almsgiving, personal care or social justice slipping by the wayside?\u00a0 Have you started to forget?<\/p>\n The mercy of the Christian life, however, is that the living God continually calls us to conversion. We have only to notice\u2014to hear\u2014to look\u2014to taste and see that the Lord is good. \u00a0And be thankful.<\/p>\n Whether our glass if half empty or half full.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Does this feel like an ominous sign to you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":54855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3119,17],"tags":[3489],"class_list":["post-54850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-plaza-new-ws","category-liturgical-spirituality","tag-third-sunday-of-lent-lent"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Color-snowglobe-resized-300x225.jpg\")
I didn\u2019t know this could happen to snow globes.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never dropped her, never damaged her, and haven\u2019t ever really ceased to notice her presence<\/em>, even as it seeped away, slowly, leaving her marooned in a sea of iridescent flakes of plastic.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know\u2026does this feel like an ominous sign to you?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/woman-at-the-well-2-300x248.jpg\")
Every day.\u00a0 Every moment.\u00a0 Every Lenten season.\u00a0 We can be literally standing half-kilter in a pool of annoyingly sticky glitter, watching our spiritual life leak down to the dregs\u2026and for the sake of the one, Christ will still fill our spirits with living water.\u00a0 For whoever drinks of the water he shall give will never thirst.<\/p>\n